One of the most common skin problems we see in cats with pink noses or white ears are sores that just don’t seem to heal. Owners often say the sore nearly heals, then the scab falls off and the healing process starts again.
The most common cause of this sort of non-healing sore is a type of skin cancer called Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC). These cancers are quite easy to treat if detected and treated early, but as they become more advanced more aggressive surgical treatment is required.
Early cases of SCC can be treated with cryotherapy (freezing). This is done with the animal sedated or under anaesthesia, and a special probe is used to freeze the lesion. We normally freeze the lesion three times in a treatment session to thoroughly destroy the cancer cells. In most cases one session is all that is needed.
As the cancer develops, they become more invasive, spreading into surrounding tissue. In these cases, we may need to remove the ears or nasal tissue to cure the animal. It might sound quite extreme, but the cats still function perfectly normally after surgery. They just look a bit abnormal.
If your cat has a scab or sore that doesn’t heal within one week of you first noticing it, please make an appointment to have it examined.